cheat sadness/enjoy suffering (2019) for septet

Instrumentation: flute, clarinet, quartertone piano, quartertone accordion, quartertone piano, violin, cello

Program Note:
Cheat Sadness/Enjoy Suffering (2020) explores the radical splintering of sound from pitch into noise. Conceived of as a triptych – like many Francis Bacon paintings - Cheat Sadness/Enjoy Suffering represents three side by side portraits, and is an homage to Tatsumi Hijikata (土方巽1928-1986) and Kazuo Ohno (大野一雄1906-2010), two of the founding figures of the modern Japanese dance form, Butoh (舞踏). Its hallmarks include (but are not limited to) playful/grotesque imagery, taboos, extreme and/or absurd environments. Most butoh exercises use imagery to varying degrees: from the razorblades and insects of Ankoku Butoh, to Dairakudakan's threads and water jets, to Seiryukai's rod in the body. A certain tension between control and uncontrol is present through many of the exercises. Their writings, choreography, and dances helped inform the sonic images that I created.

Cheat Sadness/Enjoy Suffering was composed for the “Beyond: Microtonal Music Festival 2020” at the University of Pittsburgh, and is dedicated to Finland’s MikroEnsemble. It was premiered by MikroEnsemble on February 29, 2020 at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

Cheat Sadness/Enjoy Suffering is approximately 10 minutes long.

score and parts can be purchased here